ountains did the Great Carbuncle hold a place half so
honored as is reserved for it in the hall of the De Veres."

"It is a noble thought," said the cynic, with an obsequious sneer.
"Yet, might I presume to say so, the gem would make a rare sepulchral
lamp, and would display the glories of Your Lordship's progenitors
more truly in the ancestral vault than in the castle-hall."

"Nay, forsooth," observed Matthew, the young rustic, who sat hand in
hand with his bride, "the gentleman has bethought himself of a
profitable use for this bright stone. Hannah here and I are seeking it
for a like purpose."

"How, fellow?" exclaimed His Lordship, in surprise. "What castle-hall
hast thou to hang it in?"

"No castle," replied Matthew, "but as neat a cottage as any within
sight of the Crystal Hills. Ye must know, friends, that Hannah and I,
being wedded the last week, have taken up the search of the Great
Carbuncle because we shall need its light in the long winter evenings
and it will be such a pretty thing to show the neighbors when they
visit us! It will shine through the house, so that we may pick up a
pin in any corner, and will set all the windows a-glowing as if there
were a great fire of pine-knots in the chimney. And then how pleasant,
when we awake in the night, to be able to see one another's faces!"

There was a general smile among the adventurers at the simplicity of
the young couple's project in regard to this wondrous and invaluable
stone, with which the greatest monarch on earth might have been proud
to adorn his palace. Especially the man with spectacles, who had
sneered at all the company in turn, now twisted his visage into such
an expression of ill-natured mirth that Matthew asked him rather
peevishly what he himself meant to do with the Great Carbuncle.

"The Great Carbuncle!" answered the cynic, with ineffable scorn. "Why,
you blockhead, there is no such thing in _rerum natura_. I have
come three thousand miles, and am resolved to set my foot on every
peak of these mountains and poke my head into every chasm for the sole
purpose of demonstrating to the satisfaction of any man one whit less
an ass than thyself that the Great Carbuncle is all a humbug."

Vain and foolish were the motives that had brought most of the
adventurers to the Crystal Hills, but none so vain, so foolish, and so
impious too, as that of the scoffer with the prodigious spectacles. He
was one of those wretched and evil men whose yearnin